The other day I was reading an article on the best places to get poutine in Toronto and ever since I have been craving it. Poutine is a dish consisting of french fries topped with fresh cheese curds and smothered in hot gravy. Now this is certainly not the healthiest meal around so I do not eat it very often but it is so good that I just have to have it every once in a while. With poutine, you want to use the best ingredients that you can including homemade french fries and the freshest cheese curds that you can find. The gravy is where all of the flavour is so you can go to all out on it and make a really rich and tasty one. Classic poutine uses a simple, though flavourful, gravy but I wanted to try something new this time and I went with a mushroom gravy. I started the mushroom gravy by sauteing some onions along with the mushrooms and then I started layering on flavours with garlic, thyme and a splash of red wine. From there I made a roux and then thinned everything out to the consistency of gravy with broth. The mushroom poutine was so amazingly good! I have to say that this is now my favourite poutine and given the mushroom addict that I am this is not too much of a surprise.
Poutine with a Mushroom Gravy
ingredients
- 2 servings fries (see below, hot)
- 1 cup cheese curds (room temperature)
- 1 cup mushroom gravy (see below, hot)
directions
- Serve the fries topped with the cheese curds and mushroom gravy.
Mushroom Gravy
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion (diced finely)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 8 ounces mushrooms (cleaned and sliced)
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme (chopped)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup red wine (or broth)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups chicken, beef or vegetable broth
directions
- Heat the oil in a pan.
- Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the butter to the pan and let it melt.
- Add the mushrooms and saute until they start to caramelize, about 20 minutes.
- Add the garlic and thyme and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the wine, deglazed the pan and let it simmer.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a sauce pan and allow it to get bubbly and start to brown.
- Mix in the flour and allow it to simmer until it starts to brown.
- Mix in the mushrooms.
- Slowly mix in the broth until the gravy comes to the desired consistency.
Baked Fries
ingredients
- 1 potatoes, I used russet (scrubbed clean or peeled and cut into your favorite french fry shape)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt to taste
directions
- Toss the potato pieces in the oil and season with salt.
- Place the potato pieces on baking sheet in a single layer.
- Bake in a preheated 400F/200C oven until golden brown and crispy on all sides, about 30-45 minutes flipping them every 15 minutes.
I live in the US and have never heard of this dish before, but it sounds delicious.
I am going to try this some time.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
Your version of this Canadian dish is great! Yummy!
Cheers,
Rosa
Oh my goodness that sounds awfully amazing!!! I'll have to try that one day after a Looong hike so I won't feel so guilty about eating all of my favourite things smothered in gravy at once!
My Canadian (from Montreal) husband will love this.
I'll bet this is good … but I value my arteries, so I'm NOT gonna try it, alas!
: )
Oh mercy, Kevin, this is my absolute all time favoritest Canadian dish ever. 🙂 You've taken it up several notches and it looks so rich, so packed with fab flavors. 🙂 Now I'm craving it!! Where's A&W when I need it? 🙂
This looks incredible. Cheese curd isn't big in the UK so I've never tried it before, I don't think! I'm new to all this but I will look into giving the recipe a go and write about how it goes on my blog!
Following you intently now 🙂
Abigail louise
The mushrooms make this seem so much more earthy, lowering the richness just enough to make it palatable. Looks delicious.
My lord, that looks delicious. I love your photography!
Poutine is so wonderful, it's a shame it doesn't make it's way to more US restaurants… though I can get it at sandwich shop in my neighborhood. And great that you can make it at home!
Kevin, this is so sinfully delicious! Thanks for sharing your recipe. Love it!!
French fries covered with gravy!!! I'm there!
Hi Kevin, have been rss'ing your blog for quite some time now, but this is the time for me to speak up 😉
I have, like yourself, been intrigued by poutine. But i (in Europe, in Holland) have always found 'cheese curds' to be even more mesmerizing. What the $#%^@ is it? 🙂
Here we have stuff that is called 'kwark'. A kwarktaart translates to cheesecake, for example. So it is the kind of cheese that fits well with sweets. Then there is cottage cheese, which doesn't resemble your curds in a million.
Oh i don't even know where i'm going with this. Anyhow. If you have any idea how to take on to this quest, give me a shout.
posting-username x xs4all x nl
you can figure out the address 🙂
Oh so rude of me to barge in like that… :/
I love your recipes and enjoy every post. Keep up the good work, it's much appreciated! :)))
This recipe brings me back to 1988 when I spent a summer in Quebec )vieux Quebec) studing French.
Poutine is legendary there (as were ketchup flavored Lays potato chips). They would sell Poutine in little road side stands.
It was yummy–not terriby attractive–but yummy. Thanks for
Rebekah
Kathryn – we do have something like this… Disco Fries. It's Americanized and cheap, served in diners. Fries, american cheese, and gravy. Not nearly as classy as this recipe.
PS – When I was scanning the site, I thought this was Nutella covered bananas. Chocolate craving, oy.
http://jennylearnstocook.blogspot.com
When I lived in Boston there was more than a couple of impromptu road trips to Canada jut for Poutine! This looks awesome!!!!
Looks amazing. I would love to make it but have no idea what cheese curds are.
Agggh this is so not a good thing to look at near dinner time!! It looks amazing.
you know i finally tried cheese curds this winter. got some at trader joe's (do you have trader joe's in canada?) anyway, loved them and loved frying them. weird texture, but funky. so i would love to try them this way.
Hey Kevin, long time no hear! Because it is named 'Poutine' somehow, fries with gravy became upmarket! YUM!
deesje: Cheese curds are definitely not quark (I had to look this one up) or cottage cheese. They come in small (1 cm) pieces and they are dry and they resemble small bits of cheddar cheese, either white or orange. Here is the wikipedia article on cheese curds. I hope this helps.
Be still my heart….LOVE this combo!!!
I had this in Quebec, not sure it was as good as yours looks. Hubby told me about it when I was driving up, so I ordered it. I also have a friend here in Princeton who is on a mission to try every Poutine she can find on menus…
The three poutine recipes you have up all look amazing. Like, really, really amazing.
My housemate and I make it sometimes but our approach is much less basic. Also we've found it quite hard to find mozzarella curds in the UK.. do you buy curds or make them? If it's the latter would you be able to advise on how?
Can't wait to try the green bean and mushroom poutine. Mmmmmm.
J-in-Catering: I have always bought the cheese curds but making your own sounds like fun. So far I have only tried making paneer at home and I think that it is about time to try making some more of my own cheese.
Oh my husband would probably love this…however he would have to make sure and workout a lot if he did eat it!
I've had a poutine craving ever since I had it in Hong Kong. This is a culinary treasure imho. But one of the biggest problems is "Cheese Curds". I believe I have the answer, at the time of writing I have not tested my theory but ….RICOTTA! This is not some chewy lumpy cottage cheese, it's silky and nearly salt free creamy curds. I will follow the recipe above now that he cheese curd problem is solved. Food heaven awaits . WCL, Scotland.
Anonymous: I am addicted t poutine as well! I guess I am a little bit spoiled living in Ontario as the cheese shops import the "authentic" cheese curds from Quebec.
Poutine has never appealed to me (I know, I know, that's sacrilege for a Canuck to say!!) – until now. I'll be making this recipe soon, this sounds AMAZING.
Just found your blog recently and I'm so impressed with your recipes.
made it and it's delicious. thanx!